The best way to make the moving house process as straightforward as possible is to give plenty of time to plan and prepare ahead of the move date. You’ll very often be taken by surprise when moving house as various unexpected events pop up during the process which is why the best advice is always to plan well in advance of the move date. This is also why I’ve compiled this list with tips to declutter before moving as it will help greatly with knowing exactly what you want to take with you and what you may want to donate, sell or give away.
The decluttering process is essentially a great moment to pause and take stock of all your belongings. From here it then marks out a path for how to proceed with the next steps of the move as you know exactly what items you have and what you need or don’t need for your new place.
One Room at a Time
The best process for decluttering is to take it one room at a time which makes the process a lot more manageable. Usually it’s best to start with smaller items and work up to the larger or heavier furniture pieces or you may have organised a professional removals service to deal with these items. The decluttering process also doubles up as packing as you box up belongings that you want to move while filtering out items that can be donated, sold or disposed of.
While decluttering each room, you’ll soon start to get a good understanding of the exact amount of boxes and items that will need to be transported either in your vehicle or in the removal company’s truck. Either way, this is valuable information to know as you can then plan out how many trips you’ll need or the size of vehicle to complete the move.
Archive or Shred
It might not be so relevant these days as a lot of documents are digital but for those that aren’t, moving home is a great excuse to organise your paper documents. Just like decluttering the house of items no longer needed, it’s a convenient opportunity to go through paperwork and decide what still needs to be kept, what can be shredded or incinerated and finally what can be digitised. You might want to take a photographic record of certain documents to have digital back-ups.
Getting Rid of Unwanted Items
Of course not everything will make the cut and be moved to your new home which is why decluttering is so handy. As the process gives you a complete overview of all your belongings, you can sort things into: keep, sell, donate and finally junk or, hopefully, recycle wherever possible. Often, there’s at least a pile of unworn or forgotten clothes that can be given a second life either through donation or selling online.
In this instance, decluttering not only serves you but is also a great benefit to charity shops as they can raise money through your donations. There’s also likely to be some dusty technology: old phones, ipods, games consoles, etc. that can be taken to a recycling point to be disposed of safely. It’s a great excuse to get everything done at once where, likely, we may not make the effort for only one item.
Just like old clothes and old gadgets, there are probably the CDs and DVDs to go with them which may no longer be needed or even usable. Books are another item that can take up quite a lot of space which may no longer be practical; maybe they’ve sat on the shelf for a while or have already been read. They’re another great item that can have a second life being donated to a charity shop.
Self Storage
There may be items of furniture that you wish to keep for the future or even kitchenware that may not fit currently but you have plans that one day they will – for whatever reason, using self-storage is a great option to keep items that may not yet have a permanent place. Perhaps you want to buy furniture before the big move and don’t have space at home to store it, a self storage unit would solve this problem.
This also remedies the problem if there are certain things you may be hesitant about getting rid of and want more time to consider and ultimately decide on. In this instance hopefully the decluttering process isn’t being put on hold but just given more time to properly think over. There’s always going to be sentimental pieces that you’re unsure what you want to do with.
Hopefully you’ve found some practical and useful tips in this list that will help to prepare for the exciting move ahead. Decluttering is a great opportunity to take stock of what you have and what you no longer need or use. It really helps to clear up space and organise everything before moving it all into a new home.
